


Strong Enough! Chapter 2

by shelielaff



Series: Eternity [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-10-03
Packaged: 2018-02-19 18:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2398781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelielaff/pseuds/shelielaff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The 8th years adjust to life back at Hogwarts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strong Enough! Chapter 2

** Chapter 2  **

Draco sat with his fellow 8th years in the Great Hall. They had a special table of their own due to the house tables being full from the new intake and the already existing student body, it seemed to work, the 8th years clung to each other as nobody else quite understood what they had had to endure to get to where they were today, they silently understood each other and that was all that they needed, like the shared dorms, the table was a silent barrier from the rest of the world.

 Draco was still slightly embarrassed from the events of the previous night, he had not panicked like that for a long time, he sat quietly between Harry and Blaise attempting not to draw any attention to himself. He pushed his dinner around his plate in silence, occasionally casting his eyes around the masses of students in front of him situated at their house tables, he noticed glances and whispers in their direction, the ones of fear and loathing aimed at him and the ones of awe and admiration aimed at his green eyed neighbour and the other Gryffindor’s. Draco was beginning to get used to this, he knew he deserved this, he understood, he understood the fear and the hatred in the eyes of the ones that judged him, it was the way that he felt about himself. The good that Harry had believed he had done towards the end of the war paled in comparison against the evils he had committed, he knew that, everyone knew that, well everyone except the people sitting around him on the table, they saw something in him he could apparently not see in himself.

 The Slytherin sighed and looked down at the plate of untouched food  in front of him, biting back the tears that threatened to fall as he remembered, remembered the evils, remembered who he was, what he had done and how he did not deserve the heroes around him to treat him as an equal. He placed his fork down on the table and prepared to excuse himself, before he could make a move to speak Draco felt the weight of a hand on his knee, he looked right in to those big, beautiful green eyes that were shining with concern for him. Since that awful night that Harry had found him attempting to fill the dark void in his life with anything, even pain, he had never left his side and Draco knew that he didn’t deserve Harry’s attention, he had said it before and would probably repeat it may times in the future but the boy at his side just would not listen, Draco was broken, broken beyond help, he knew it, but Harry would not accept it, Harry felt the need to save everybody and Draco knew he could not be saved. He gave Harry a small smile, not wanting to bring attention to them and commenced picking at his food, a small smile appearing on his face as he realised Harry’s hand had remained on his knee.  Draco realised he was not leaving the table anytime soon and began to pay attention to the rest of his companions and was amused to hear Blaise flirting with an extremely flustered Finnegan.

‘So, is it true if you have an Irishman of your very own it makes you extremely lucky?’ Blaise asked with a raised eyebrow carefully placing a fork in to his mouth and removing it in an extremely seductive manner. Seamus’s eyes were wide as he watched this obvious display and choked his reply,

‘Leprechauns.’ He stammered.

‘Excuse me?’ Blaise asked with a raised eyebrow.

‘Yer mean Leprechauns.’ Seamus replied. ‘They’re what’s lucky.’

‘Oh I don’t know,’ Blaise said in a low growl, ‘I would consider myself very lucky to have my very own Irishman.’

It was unfortunate for Seamus that at that moment he had chosen to take a large gulp of his drink to ease his suddenly very dry throat, at Blaise’s comment Seamus had spat his drink across the table in front of him and proceeded to have a choking fit, Neville slapped him on the back with gusto as Blaise smirked and continued with his meal.

Draco watched the exchange with interest, that confidence that oozed from Blaise used to be matched by his own. A year ago he would have no problem saying exactly how he felt and expressing his own needs and wants, but now, now well Draco felt he did not even deserve to have even his most primal needs met. That thought brought Draco back to the present moment and the heat he could feel as Harry’s hand remained on his knee as Harry listened politely to Granger wondering how their lessons would work.

‘Well there simply aren’t enough of us to warrant whole classes to ourselves, I think we will be put in with the 7th years, I mean it is the same work after all. What do you think?’

Harry took his time in answering,

‘I don’t know ‘Mione, I don’t know how I feel about them splitting us all up.’

‘I know what you mean,’ she replied quietly, ‘Summer and sharing a common room has turned us in to quite the little family.’

Harry smiled at this, ‘Yep with you and Ron as mum and dad.’

A blush crept across Hermione’s face and settled on her cheeks, she gave a small smile and brought the conversation back on track; ‘So Draco how do you think our classes will work?’

Draco started at being spoken to, he felt Harry give his knee a reassuring squeeze so cleared his throat to speak,

‘I have not really thought about it if I’m honest,’ he said quietly, ‘However now you mention it I do believe that your idea of us joining the 7th years sounds most likely, I too don’t really like the idea of us all being separated, ‘he said quietly, ‘but I cannot see any other way around it.’

‘We will know soon enough, here’s Flitwick with our timetables.’ Interrupted Blaise from his left side.

 The tiny teacher handed the slips of parchment out in silence, each student quietly thanked him as they took the timetables and began to study them intensely. Harry removed his hand from Draco’s leg to collect is timetable and immediately began pouring over it, without a word timetables were swapped and compared, there were a few raised eyebrows and the odd mutter but they remained relatively silent whilst they  looked at each other’s timetables. Draco looked up from the one he held, Ron’s, and noted with interest Finnegan handing his silently to Blaise and Blaise placing it side by side with his own quietly examining and comparing while Seamus watched with a small smile. Draco felt a pang of jealously as he watched, what he was seeing was obviously the start of something between his best friend and the small Gryffindor in front of him, Draco envied them, they had something to look forward to, something fun and perhaps something even more after everything they had been through, he was happy for the two, as he was for all the couples around him but he couldn’t help the sad pang of realisation that he could never have that. He handed Ron’s timetable to Hermione so she could compare, as he did he noticed Harry next to him studiously comparing two timetables, the pang deepened in strength, Draco tore his eyes away and stole a glance around the table, he wondered which of his fellow 8th years Harry wanted to ensure he spent all his time with, he didn’t even know whether he was searching for a girl or a guy, he didn’t think it mattered, Harry could have his pick. He remembered Harry had had a thing with the young Weasley girl, when had that ended? So girls it was, Hermione was the only girl in their group, no other female Gryffindor’s or Slytherin’s had returned, Draco glanced down to the other end of the table, the Ravenclaw’s and Hufflepuff’s had merged as they themselves had done, the 8 students took up the other end of the table the Ravenclaw’s on one side facing the Hufflepuff’s they too were trading timetables, however, Draco noticed that they all had timetables in front of them, none were missing, so who’s did Harry have?  He glanced around their end of the table again and noticed Dean Thomas did not have a timetable in front of him, well that was it wasn’t it, it was Dean, Draco felt a sick feeling in his stomach as he thought about Harry and Dean together, he didn’t think he could cope with that. It made it worse that he was male, it was not so bad when he knew Harry would never want him because he was male, but now, he knew Harry would never want him because he was Draco Malfoy. He braced himself to look at Harry again, the green-eyed Gryffindor was holding one of the timetables in his left hand, running the index finger of his right hand down the other timetable, the end of his tongue poking out of the corner in his mouth in concentration, Draco could not tear his eyes away as much as it was hurting him.  Harry must have sensed him looking and turned his head with a smile, he picked the timetable off the table and handed it to Draco ‘All the same,’ he said with a smile. Draco looked at the parchment in front of him like it was made of fire and would surely burn him if he touched it, he took it carefully from Harry, across the top in Flitwick’s cursive handwriting were the words, Draco Malfoy. Harry had been comparing their timetables, it was him Harry wanted to spend all his time with, Draco swallowed and gave Harry a small smile. What did this mean? Was he reading too much in to it ? Harry just wanted to look after him, to be the hero,  that was all, nothing more, he was just the hero’s new project, he didn’t want this, he didn’t.


End file.
